July, 2006

>After getting back from the Blue Man Group auditions it was off to Belgium to the studio at my friend Werners house…Werner is one of THE most gifted musicians I have ever had the pleasure of working with and one of the few musical soul-mates I have discovered this lifetime…We used to play in a formation together called ‘Triple X‘ (click here for mp3) but for one reason or another that came to a halt….We have been meaning to work on something ever since though… and finally after many years we have both managed to find time (or should I say make time) to get the ball rolling again…His place is set right in the middle of the country side and making music there is like a dream come true……no distractions….…beautiful clean air….…lots of space……cool animals…… lovely family…. great food…… what more can one ask for???

We got a lot of preliminary stuff done… it was mainly about checking out software possibilities and like I said earlier: getting the ball rolling…. we are planning on doing this on a regular basis and once we have music ready to listen to, you’ll be hearing about it here…. as usual 🙂

Teile mit Freunden

>Just over a week ago I checked my emails as usual and to my surprise I had an email from Blue Man Group asking me if I would be interested in auditioning for them as a drummer for a new production opening in Oberhausen, Germany which is to open alongside their production in Berlin…I was so excited and immediately agreed… it’s not everyday you get that kind of invitation… so I booked my flights and then got straight to practicing during the remaining days… and then all of a sudden it was here… the day of truth LOL!So I got up really early this morning and drove to Maastricht airport and from there flew to Berlin…Once I got there I decided to have a walk around as I did have a few hours to kill… so I decided to go to the Jewish Holocaust memorial site…I had been there once before and was so moved by it that I had to take the opportunity to check it out again…. I highly recommend visiting it if you are ever in Berlin… it is an experience, that is for sure…After that I thought I had better make my way to the Potsdamer Platz to make sure I got there on time… when I did get there I still had a few more hours to kill so I took myself off to the nearest Haagen Dazs ice cream shop – got myself a BIG chocolate milkshake and worked on some tracks that we will be doing in the studio tomorrow…And before you knew it was time to go to the audition…It was at the theatre were Blue Man Group is currently playing…When I got up there, there were about 8 other musicians ready to audition…Once it was 3pm we were all called in to this huge rehearsal room that was just FULL of all types of drum set-ups used within the production… was very impressive! Anyway we were all asked to play one of the songs from the show with the guitarist and bassist…One after the other… there was definitely a real sense of electricity in the air…. everyone was on edge ready to do their best I guess…Funnily enough one of the other drummers auditioning was the drummer of AK 4711 who we played with at Basel last year… once we had all played we were asked to leave the room for a few minutes… then one of the guys came out and asked three of us to leave and the other 5 to come back in for the next round… this continued until there were only two us left… finally I was called in on my own and they said they were happy with how I played and if I would be up for coming to the final audition at the end of September in Amsterdam… How cool is that?!!?!? I was over the moon to say the least and pretty much just floated all the way back home for the next few hours… so now it is just a matter of practice, practice, practice… stay tuned!

Teile mit Freunden

>Just been getting back into a ‘normal’ routine again – you really appreciate that kind of thing after a tour… at least I do… hanging out with Tony & Elvin (my pets) … went to some parties… met up with some friends…. had some nice food… mowed the lawn… got back into the studio… what can I say… life is good :oP

Teile mit Freunden

>When Andy woke me up this morning at 9am I hoped I was dreaming – but I wasn’t… we had to go over to Brooklyn to drop off all of the gear that is staying in the USA to the next tour… stuff like the keyboards, akai sampler, guitar amps, guitars… a whole bunch of stuff – a lot of them were not exactly the lightest things in the world… but luckily three of the Domino peeps came down to help us bring it up… once we had loaded it all in it was time for Steve to show me the Domino CD racks where I had a free pick of what I wanted… they really hooked me up big time! That made up for carrying all that stuff up there that’s for sure… after popping out for some breakfast with Andy we both whipped out our laptops and did a whole bunch of stuff online back at the office… then before I knew it I had to get back over to the other side of the river to meet up with everyone else as cabs were coming to take us to JFK airport at 1:45pm… luckily I made it well on time… and before you could say Jose Gonzalez we were back on a plane on the way over the BIG pond… I was so wrecked that I fell asleep before we even took off… I just don’t function properly without enough sleep… but it wasn’t the most comfortable seat in the world so I kept waking up with a seriously stiff neck… boy do I have it bad sometimes :OP I did manage to watch the movie “V for Vendetta” again… I think it’s a really good movie and I love Natalie Portman….. then when we got to the other end – London Heathrow – it was time to say good by to the others as I was getting a connecting flight to Cologne in Germany… Gordon had already rushed off – guess he was excited about seeing his wife …. but I will be seeing them all in a few weeks anyway when we start doing the summer festivals around Europe – in August I believe… my flight to Cologne was short and sweet and now I am sitting on the train to Aachen writing the final lines of this US tour blog… looking forward to getting to my home sweet home and just chilling…. even though this tour had it’s fair share of ups & downs I think it is safe to say that is was a full on success… everyone did there best and I think we will all have very fond memories of this 3 week stint with Jose and Juana… I think it was a very special line-up and I have to say I learned so much from just watching both of them perform… both are great artists in their own right and I wish them all the success in the world… they definitely deserve it…. … … gotta get off the train now… I will probably have a little while off blogging but will be back very soon with the continuing saga…… so stay tuned……..!

Teile mit Freunden

>Check out this video footage recorded by someone in the audience at the final Bowery Ballroom show… we all went on stage during Joses encore of ‘Heartbeats’ and ridiculed him at his own request… it would have been rude to turn him down lol!

Teile mit Freunden

>Andy came through with the coolest thing ever tonight… he managed to hook it up that we could go hang out at Electric Ladyland – the legendary studio where Jimi Hendrix wrote and recorded… and other amazing artists like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and an all-time favorite album of mine: D’Angelos ‘Voodoo’…. We all met up in front of the hotel… at least everyone who was going to the studio… Carim, Jim, Soundvibe, Soundwife, Gordon, Andy & myself… Juana had thought about coming along but then decided not to as she has an early start tomorrow morning – has a radio session in Philly poor thing – so we said our good byes to her… everyone was pretty sad I think… we all had SOOOooooo much fun hanging out with her… not only that I was continually inspired by her performances… so it was a tough one… anyway, we all jumped in cabs and went down to Electric Ladyland… I think we were all pretty overwhelmed when we got given the tour… basically Andys friend Russ who will be producing Keziahs next album was in there working with this really sweet young vocalist called Crystal Warren (hope that’s spelled right?!)… we got to hear some works in progress and it sounded beautiful… she is a real talent… and she was such a sweet young lady… and Russ really is THE man for letting us come by during his session just so we could drool… the studio they were working in was the smaller studio which (Russ told us) used to be Jimis apartment whilst he was still alive… even as I write this I can’t believe I was actually there… what an honor… and studio A was unbelievable… I am not really that much of a studio freak in terms of knowing about all types of equipment but judging by Carims face (to say he almost died a thousand deaths through sheer excitement is an understatement) I gathered this place was truly extraordinary… whilst we there this guy was being recorded playing a specially treated piano… not exactly sure how he was playing but it sounded so cool… was just so exciting to be there and soak up the vibes… after about 45mins of pure bliss we decided to go down to this 24 hour French restaurant called French Roast around the corner from the studio… we were all starving… it was a nice way to end the day… I had a really nice burger with some strange cheese… and an Iced Chai… was pretty good… At about 3am it was time to back to the hotel… as we had an early start tomorrow I decided to pack all my stuff before going to bed because I just knew I wouldn’t want to face doing it after only 4-5 hours sleep… so I got to bed somewhere around 5am… zzzzzzz.zzzzzzz.zzzzzz

Teile mit Freunden

>I was planning on getting up early today but at around 5am this morning when I looked at the clock and still hadn’t fallen asleep I realized this was not likely to happen… it was just soooooooo hot in my room and the AC wasn’t working… and no matter how hard I tried I could not get to sleep…. so after getting up I went around the corner for a fresh juice and a bagel with cream cheese… mmmmmhhhhh…. nice way to start the day….. we all got to Joes Pub at around 2pm for loadin and soundcheck… was a bit of a weird venue I thought but everyone seems to love it… the stage was tiny for us though and it was a bit of a squeeze… the other strange thing was that as soon as we sounchecked we had to load all our gear off stage again because another band was doing a show before us… not a support act… rather there were two separate shows on tonight… each to his own I guess… once we had set up and soundchecked I had about 4 hours before I had to be back so I decided to use them and head back up to COSM to check out the gallery… and boy am I pleased that I did… it was amazing… I was literally in heaven… I have both of Alex Greys books with his paintings in them but to see them in their full grandeur was breath taking… I wasn’t prepared for how BIG they are… WOW is all I can say… no point in trying to explain any more… if you are in New York I highly recommend checking it out… I walked back down to the hotel and stopped off in Chelsea to have some Thai food… Pad Thai as always (hi Carim)… and it was yummy… I also stopped for another break at a bookshop and had an Iced Mocha to cool me down… it was so humid outside… from there it was back to the hotel to pick up my stage stuff and then a whole group of us including Queen Bee Juana Molina walked back to the venue… the band on before us were a little weird…. it kinda reminded me of a Las Vegas show or something… it was almost that bad that it was good if you know what I mean…. Gal, Juana and I had a laugh at the bar as we caught the last 10 minutes of the show…. it was sooooooooooo over the top… once they were done and off stage it was time for our final final show of the tour… we all went for it and I think we all enjoyed it… the one thing that threw me a little to start with when I got on stage was that I spotted Keziah Jones sitting at a table right in front of me… that’s always a weird feeling playing a show knowing that someone you really respect is checking it out… but it was an honor no less especially when I was packing up the gear after the show and he came up and shook my hand and told me he thought the show was ‘tight’… cool :o) We all hung out after the show and just enjoyed the fact that we completed the tour with a good show… t’was a great feeling… once we loaded all the gear up and took it back to the hotel it was time for the true highlight of the tour….